Shubhendu Sharma, founder, Afforest, 29

Entrepreneur and engineer Shubhendu Sharma’s Afforestt, started in January 2011, is a for profit social enterprise on a mission to bring back our native forests. Sharma now works with partners around the world on reforestation projects, planting forests in corporate settings, farms and cities and aims to convert empty urban spaces into natural forests. Afforest uses the Miyawaki Technique to create forests that grow 10 times faster than traditional ones, are 30 times as dense and 100 times more biodiverse.